An unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly referred to a UAV, is an aircraft with no onboard pilot. UAVs may be expendable or recoverable and may fly autonomously or remotely. In autonomous applications, the vehicle is either pre-programmed with flight plans or may have the ability to determine its own flight plan based on a prescribed mission. UAVs are commonly employed by the Navy, Army, and Air Force for military purposes. UAVs are also employed in the private sector to perform services such as, crop dusting, forest fire monitoring, aerial photography, and meteorological, environmental, or other forms of surveillance.
Currently, electrically powered UAVs are limited in range and duration by the size and weight of the batteries which they can carry. Batteries can make up a significant percentage of the available payload weight. Consequently, there is an inherent tradeoff between duration and useful payload. Because of these constraints, the flight times of electrically powered UAVs are typically limited to less than one hour. Additionally, the distance traveled from a base location is also limited. Also of concern is that UAV batteries slowly lose their energy even when they are completely powered down. This limits the ability of UAVs to shut down for extended periods of time and then be useful again if the vehicle cannot be recharged. Because of these problems, it is desired to have a means to recharge UAV batteries that does not require a return to the base location. It is also desired to have a means to recharge the batteries that enables the UAV to perform job functions in a more efficient manner.